Third a Kiss

The brick floor looked freshly swept and birdsong outside mingled with the crow of a rooster and twitters of happy hens.

Without elixir fogging my mind and body, I had the luxury of judging the quality of Sully’s virtual reality.

He was right when he said he contorted the parameters of fact and fiction. Try as I might, I couldn’t spot a glitch in the illusion. Not when I swiped a hand through the air and felt the heat of a dry summer, rather than the damp mugginess of the tropics. Not when I stepped forward, my feet encased in simple lace-ups stained with mud, manure, and who knew what else. Not when I ran my hands over the blue-flowered cotton dress that skimmed my thighs with a flirty hem.

I pinched myself, trying to force my body to return to truth thanks to pain.

However, unlike a dream, the barn didn’t vanish.

I stayed standing in the centre of a farm I’d never been to before, all while my body remained tethered to some harness in Sully’s Euphoria villa.

My heart raced at the thought.

At the unnaturalness of it.

To be torn down the seams and denied access to my body.

The more I thought about it, the more panic crept over me.

I didn’t like the distance. My mind was homeless. My heart in two locations at once—the feeling, knowing, instinctual part of me existed in this fantasy, but the pumping, working, biological muscle remained in a place I couldn’t see, hear, or touch.

I didn’t like it.

Claustrophobia clawed, scratching my skin and licking through my hair.

I want to wake up.

I need—

A boot scuffed on the broken-brick floor.

My eyes soared upward, my body twisting to face the intruder.

Instantly, my heart pounded even harder, confused and alarmed, sensing a trap even while skipping with hopeful joy.

Sully.

He stepped from one of the stables as if it held a portal to another dimension. He’d been inserted into this illusion through a simple button, rather than walking through the barn doors.

He didn’t speak as he came toward me.

His tall, muscular frame no longer wore his armour of suits and ties but had traded them in for holey, torn jeans, complete with smears of dirt from hands used to working outdoors. His black and blue plaid shirt was rolled up to his forearms, revealing hair damp with perspiration. The hollow of his throat and sweeps of his collarbone held grime and sweat, begging me to lick and taste a male not afraid of hard toil.

My core clenched as he continued toward me, unhurried and entirely untouchable.

His boots crunched stray hay, his long legs ate up the distance, and when he finally stopped in front of me, I was as wet as if I’d taken elixir, after all.

I trembled as his hand swept up and cupped my cheek.

I moaned as his thumb traced my bottom lip, then speared into my mouth.

And I positively whimpered as he dragged me forward by hooking his thumb against my lower teeth, pulling me into him and slamming his lips over mine.

His tongue replaced his thumb, the tang of salt and dirt tainting a spiteful, nasty kiss. With his finger still wet from being in my mouth, he trailed it over my cheek to cradle the back of my neck, tangling his touch in my loose, long hair, keeping me imprisoned for his taking.

His other arm went around my waist, jerking me into him.

My body responded. It melted against his hard edges and welcomed the bite of his belt buckle. I relaxed into his touch, confused as to the purpose of this fantasy. Why had he loaded me with the threat of giving me to another man, only to appear in his own form?

What sort of punishment was that?

How exactly was I supposed to earn his trust if it was him I trusted?

His tongue dived deeper, sending my thoughts helter-skelter into dark corners.

I kissed him back.

I reached for his hair, scratching his nape with my fingernails, wanting to hurt him for making me need him so much.

I wanted to continue hating him, but that was impossible when every urge said to spread my legs and submit.

His kiss turned vicious, demanding more of me. Killing my ability to think.

I wanted to throw myself headfirst into sex. To fall to the floor and allow him to fuck me. To somehow enjoy and abuse this strange situation for my benefit.

But…

Something…

Something kept my mind racing.

Something kept tugging me back.

Something…doesn’t feel right.

He tugged on my hair, jerking my head back to bite and suck his way along my jaw. He hadn’t said a word, yet for some reason, I feared his voice wouldn’t sound like him.

His touch was hot and erotic and everything I enjoyed but…that spark was missing. That full-body electrocution that made me beg for it to stop but also sadistically wanted to turn up the voltage until we both shuddered with mutual pain.

His tongue fought against mine, hot and slippery, masculine and bold, but…I felt the same way about his kiss as I did about Scott’s kiss.

Perfectly acceptable, arousingly skilled, but…lacking.

Lacking that magic.

Void of the curse Sully had condemned me with.

This kiss was mediocre.

This kiss was from a man I hadn’t fallen in love with.

“Stop.” I tore my mouth away from his.

His lips glistened from shared spit, his tongue ran along his bottom lip tasting me on him. His blue eyes flashed with impatience. “Stop?” He rolled his hips, wedging his throbbing erection against my stomach. “How can you tell me to stop when this is what you do to me?”

I waited for my belly to flip, for my core to liquefy, for my heart to gallop with lust.

I waited for every synapse to falter and fritz, knowing I was wanted by a man of Sully’s calibre.

A man who was rich—not just in money or genius, not in physical assets or skills, but rich in whatever alchemy that’d switched us from normal individuals into the exact needs of each other.

We were meant to be…pure and simple.

And this man…he’s not Sully.

Pushing his broad chest, I squirmed in his hold. “Let me go.”

Anger furrowed his brow. “Silly girl.” His fingers dropped to my hips, digging his cock deeper against my stomach as his biceps flexed, dragging me into him. “That’s not how this works. I’m going to fuck you and—”

I slapped him with a swift right palm, then drove my knee as high as I could against his balls.

He stumbled backward, nursing the bright red handprint on his cheek, luckily avoiding my knee to his testicles. “Fuck, you’re going to pay for that.”

For a moment, my resolve faded.

His voice had the same gravel and velvet. His jaw had the same twitch of fury. His eyes danced from turquoise to navy to every colour in the ocean. Even his hair fell the same way over his forehead, complete with lightened tips, laughing in the face of dark ebony.

His height was right.

His smell was right.

His touch and taste and mannerisms were right.

So…why did I doubt?

Why pin my refusal on the flimsy idea that just because his touch didn’t affect my soul that he was an imposter? Why did I think I could sense a lie when every sense had been hampered by Sully’s technology?

What is going on?

I paused too long.

He scooped me into his control, backing me across the barn with a furious scowl. “Let’s see if you have anything on under that dress, shall we?”